Sundance Q&A: Juno Temple Is Blowing Up

Juno Temple will be in a movie you see in the next year or two. She may be in ten of them, since that's how many she has in development or awaiting release, including, of all things, a horror movie directed by Alexandre Aja (Piranha 3D) in which Daniel Radcliffe sprouts horns. Temple tends toward the extremes in her roles (a nymphomaniac, a deranged sister) but is somehow always completely believable and even weirdly charming.

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Three of Temple movies are showing at this year's 2013 Sundance Film Festival, which starts today (Lovelace, Afternoon Delight, and Magic Magic). We talked to her about what movies she's most excited about, playing people who are nothing like her, being scrutinized online, and onscreen sex.

ESQUIRE.COM: I wanted to start by saying that I can't help but admire, I guess, the poise with which you seem to choose your roles. You've said they reflect your interest at any given moment. In a short span of time you've done very different roles, from Kaboom to Killer Joe. Are you interested in experimenting with what you can do?

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JUNO TEMPLE: I think it's so exciting to try anything you possibly can. There's such an array of brilliant roles for young women. You read all these amazing young women going through different stages in their life — different stages, different fascinations, different textualities, different friendships. I have to say, I've definitely been in a trailer park for a little while recently... [Laughs.]

ESQ: It seems like you're being scrutinized very closely. I was browsing your IMDb, and your school grades are considered trivia. Do you block that out?

JT: I actually didn't know that. And can I be completely honest? I don't remember if I got two Bs and a C or two Cs and a B. I loved school. I love learning. I guess people want to talk about it. I can't control that. I try not to read that kind of stuff. If people want to criticize a performance, that I understand. I think that's important. What's going on with this industry now is crazy. That obsession with celebrity is madness. I try as hard as I can not to read that stuff. Because most of the time it's a bit... factual. And it's frustrating because it's not about what you're setting out to do as an actor.

ESQ: I want to talk a bit more about Killer Joe. The funny thing about your character is you have to allow yourself to be manipulated by the other characters. How do you say to yourself, Sure, I'll be duped?

JT: For me, a director is such an important part of that process. I really have to trust them. Because then you can kind of let your inhibitions down. You can go anywhere when you trust someone. [Director] William Friedkin is a genius. He truly is. We talked a lot about Dottie. Her family, they pretend she's this little angel that doesn't really understand what's going on, and they want to protect her. And then Killer Joe comes along, and he looks at her like she's a woman, and that's very exciting for her. She wants to play with dolls and she wants to have a love affair. William always said that Killer Joe is her weird Prince Charming. And he truly is. I love that.

ESQ: Your roles have dealt with sex in very different ways. In all these roles for young women you're coming across, are you seeing any recurring attitude about sex?

JT: Sex is going to be complicated because people are either going to be offended by it or they're gong to enjoy it. It doesn't really affect me, but I think there are so many unmaiden roles for women. I've been lucky enough to play girls with lots of different attitudes about sex. There's a couple other movies at Sundance that also show sex in a different way. That's exciting. I actually don't think women are being pigeonholed right now, and I like that. It's showing that men and women — when it comes down to it, we're animals, aren't we? I know how my next-door neighbors feel about it, and I hope they're enjoying it.

ESQ: Is it frustrating at all, then, when your movie Jack and Diane is being pigeonholed as "the lesbian werewolf movie"?

JT: But see, when I read that script, what I felt was the idea of young love. It didn't matter whether it was two women, two men, or a man and a woman. When you're first in love with somebody, and it's not true love, it's borderline obsession, it's kind of like an addiction. You switch into this weird, weird part of your mind when you just can't live without that person. And you want to envelop them. You want them flowing through your veins. That was how I perceived that project.

ESQ: What makes you sign on to a role?

JT: I have to connect with the director and the director has to connect with me. Otherwise, you won't ultimately get what you want from each other. And I think it's about passion. It's about wanting to play that character, whatever way I have to play. Whether it's today. Whether it's six weeks. Whether it's two months. Whatever it is, I have to really, really want to be that person for that amount of time. I have to do her justice. That was the advice my father [director Julien Temple] gave to me, and I will stick by that until the day I die.

SA: What do you think when you see yourself onscreen? Do you look at the dailies?

JT: I actually don't normally look at dailies. What's exciting about watching a movie, when it's finished, is you sometimes you don't recognize yourself, and that's when I'm really proud. And then sometimes I sit there and I'm like, Oh, Juno, what? But you learn what you don't like when you're doing it and what you do like when you're doing it. And I really, really, really, really want to keep doing this. So I'm constantly learning.

ESQ: One of your upcoming projects I'm especially interested in is Horns, which is about Daniel Radcliffe waking up with horns in his head. What attracted you to that?

JT: I met with Alex [Alexandre Aja], the director, and I sat and talked with him for quite a long time, actually. I absolutely loved speaking with him. And I was shooting a film called Maleficent in London and my agent called me and said, "We had something come up, and they want you to do the movie." The thing I thought was so interesting about that script is you can't pinpoint it into a specific genre. It's sci-fi, it's a love story, it's a horror film, it's a magic film, it's a fairy tale. I'm excited to see the end of it. I have no idea what that's gong to become in the final cut. But I know that Alex's vision is extraordinary. I know he can tear the fucking shit out of people. That movie was a trip for me because we were always shooting at nighttime. So I felt like a night creature. I felt like an owl. It was crazy.

ESQ: To close things out, I'm wondering, is there one role of yours so far you look at and say, "This is the best of me"?

JT: I was pretty blown away when I first saw Killer Joe, because I am so different from myself in that movie. And that was something I was so proud of. That level of stripping yourself that bad? All of that was a serious challenge. Thank you so much for commenting on diversity, because that's something I strive for. I really want to be a chameleon.